“The London Screenings 2025, which ran from February 24 to February 28, once again solidified its place as a must-attend event for global buyers. Taking place across multiple venues in London, the annual TV market brought together top distributors, producers, and commissioners, all eager to showcase the latest in scripted and unscripted entertainment.
With broadcasters and streamers hungry for the next breakout reality hit or game show, the screenings offered an exciting mix of fresh IPs and proven international formats.
Several formats stood out during the week, drawing attention from global buyers. Fremantle has supersized the iconic word game for its show Scrabble. With known IP at its heart, the world's biggest toy and game brand Hasbro Mattel, it has built-in marketing and will be reassuring to viewers of all generations who grew up playing the game. It is also quite cost-effective and can benefit from shooting multiple episodes in one day. The show premiered on The CW in the U.S. in 2024 to promising ratings.
Fremantle’s House of Secrets, a survival-meets-mental endurance game show, was one of the most talked-about new titles in the physical-meets-social experiment space. In an isolated cottage, 15 secrets are revealed with 10 contestants, and lying is the only way to survive - that and body-taxing challenges. The twist is that the hosts are actos, and they lead the audience through a clever, twisting narrative, which is quite an update on the genre.
A stand-out format, aided by the AI gold rush, was AI Love You, a tech-driven factual format that purports to celebrate love’s resilience against life’s impermanence [see description below].
Building on the success of high-stakes quiz formats, ITV Studios introduced Moneyball Extreme, a fast-paced game show where contestants must balance strategy, physical skill, and sheer nerve to keep their prize money from literally rolling away. With major networks from Europe and Asia expressing interest, this format could become a global primetime hit.
... to be continued.
To read the who article, go to https://cmmespresso.substack.com/p/the-london-week-ii-london-tv-screenings
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